Diesel suppliers, Generator Dealers cabals' Against Stable Power Supply Barth Nnaji, Former Minister Of Power

Barth Nnaji 

Nnaji spoke on Wednesday in Umuahia, Abia state, during the "South East Political Roundtable" program on Flo FM.

Nnaji, who is also the group chairman of Geometric Power, stated that the ongoing failure of the national grid continues to be a major source of worry for Nigerians.

This, he claimed, is despite the federal government's assertion that it has spent N7 trillion on direct involvement in the power sector, even after the November 2013 privatization of the sector's electrical producing and distribution units.

Nnaji mentioned diesel distributors and generator vendors as additional challenges for those power producing firms.

According to the former minister, management of the sector requires experts who are familiar with the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).

"There are two areas when you talk of cabal in the sector- the diesel suppliers and generator users," he said. "Nigeria is a big user of generators because of our enormous power need and those who are in the business would not want any interruption. "The diesel suppliers feel that stable power supply would destroy their business." Nnaji said the power sector, just like others, "had some cabal, who make gains from the problems of poor power supply."

"A graphic picture of how dangerous the diesel suppliers can be was experienced when we were in government, somewhere in this country, some men cut down 30KVA line to stop electricity supply to thousands of users," the former minister said.

"Unfortunately, the diesel supplying company sponsored the operation." Incidentally, he said, the power cable fell on one of the saboteurs, who later confessed to the crime.